House is an American television medical drama that originally ran on the Fox network for eight seasons, from November 16, 2004 to May 21, 2012. The show centers around Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius who leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional hospital in New Jersey. Throughout its run, the show has been widely popular with audiences, and has been well received by the critics community. As a result, by the end of its run, the show had been nominated 169 times for awards presented by American organizations, including at least ten times each for the Primetime Emmy Awards, Teen Choice Awards, People's Choice Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Prism Awards. It won the awards a total of 56 times, which included multiple wins also at the Golden Globe Awards, Young Artist Awards, BMI Film & TV Awards, Satellite Awards, Golden Reel Awards, TCA Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Humanitas Prizes, and WGA Awards. The show has been very successful internationally also, being aired in 2008 in a total of 66 countries, and with audience of over 81.8 million worldwide, it was the most watched television show on the globe that year. As a result, it received ten nominations for international awards, including once for a BAFTA TV Award (U.K.) and for a Golden Nymph (won, Monaco). Hugh Laurie, who portrays the title character, has been nominated for an award 38 times, winning 14 of them. Omar Epps has been nominated eight times, winning three awards, while Olivia Wilde has been nominated five times for an award. Besides the show's cast members, the writers and producers of the show have also been nominated for various awards; writer, show-runner, executive producer and director David Shore, has received ten nominations for his work on the show, winning three times. Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards have been awarded annually since 1949 by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to honor excellence in television. They are considered to be one of the four major awards in America for the performing arts — together with the Academy Awards (film), Tony Awards (theatre) and Grammy Awards (music). House has been nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards, which are given to honor excellence in acting and writing in primetime television, as well as Creative Arts Emmys, which are presented in recognition of technical and other related areas in American television